WORLD OF HISTORY The action takes place in Moscow of the near future. Ten years before the main events, an inexplicable phenomenon occurred all over the planet: one day, people began to suddenly die, and all those who died from that date and a little earlier began to revive some time after death. The revived people were called the rebels: they were unreasoning predators who, apart from the feeling of hunger, had no other instincts. The rebels were one and a half to two times stronger than a normal human, possessed faster reaction speeds, and could only be destroyed by decapitating them or completely destroying their body. After the first death, the body's cells were completely restructured, and the body functioned completely differently. The apocalypse that followed killed more than six billion people. The rebels sooner or later return to intelligent life, becoming "quazi." At the time of the main events, there are approximately six billion rebels on the planet, approximately one billion humans, and over one hundred million quazi. The protagonist, capital case investigator Denis Simonov, is forced, along with a quazi police officer, to investigate the death of a professor developing a dangerous virus.
PLOT Capital case investigator Denis Simonov responds to a call to the apartment of Professor Viktor Tomilin, finds him and another man rebelling after death, and instead of arresting them, kills them both. A quazi also appears in the apartment and manages to escape. At the station, Denis is reprimanded for the high percentage of deaths and is assigned Mikhail Ivanovich Bedrents, the same quazi who escaped, as his partner. He is working on the murder of a professor on assignment from the quazi Representative in St. Petersburg. The police go to the work of the professor's wife, Victoria, where it is revealed that she hired a man to kill her husband so that he could ascend to power and become a quazi. Victoria is detained but manages to escape. It turns out that Mikhail has a ten-year-old adopted son, Naid, whom he found as a baby during his ascension. Denis and Mikhail go to the professor's apartment, where forensic expert Anastasia Deeva is already working, and encounter state security agents led by Captain Vladislav Markin, who have also become interested in the crime.
The Lazarus of Bethany shelter for the rebels is located beneath the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Victoria seizes the orphanage, but Denis and Mikhail, who arrive on the scene, realize she was after the orphanage's lab. Victoria manages to escape. It's Naid's birthday. Denis and Anastasia, who were invited, realize Mikhail is trying to bring them together. Mikhail also tells Denis that Naid could be his son, whom Denis lost along with his wife in the early days of the rebels' emergence. Searching for Victoria, the police visit the Kvazi church and the postmortem psychology center. Victoria had been there before. Denis learns of a virus that can kill all adults on the planet. There is also a virus against Kvazi. Victoria meets Simonov in the building's entrance, tells him she's on the side of the humans, asks him not to trust Mikhail, and disappears. Victoria meets with Simonov and Markin. He says he'll give up the virus if the "black mold," the virus against quasi, is destroyed.
At the Paleontological Institute, they learn that Viktor created and used the virus, and Victoria tried to dissuade him, now trying to create a vaccine against it. Denis learns that to ascend, he must eat a living human brain. Genetic analysis reveals that Naid is Denis's son. Tomilin hid the virus somewhere, and a search begins. Tomilin led a science club. One of the schoolchildren who attended, Ruslan, reveals that the professor was a radical supporter of quasi. A riot breaks out at a nursing home. Arriving there, Denis realizes that Victoria organized the riot to distract them from searching for the members of the science club. The virus was hidden in one of the clubs. It turns out that Victoria took Ruslan to an abandoned hospital. The incubation period ended and the boy fell ill, so Victoria now has the virus. She asks Denis to take her beyond the Moscow Ring Road, blackmailing him with the hostage Nide. Denis manages to outwit Victoria and kill her as they leave the Moscow Ring Road. Mikhail confirms Denis's hunch that he came to Moscow for the virus. Having received it, Kvazi leaves. Nide remains with Denis, who agrees to transfer to work for state security.
The novel has a sequel, titled "Kainozoy," set in St. Petersburg.
"Kainozoy" Denis Simonov (the hero of the first book), who has become a major and transferred from the police to state security, together with his son Naid (now named Alexander), at the request of his former partner, quasi-investigator Mikhail Bedrents, nicknamed "Drany Lis," and his superior, Colonel Markin, leaves for St. Petersburg. On the train, under mysterious circumstances, an entire carload of submarine cadets perishes and, almost simultaneously, revolts. The car is quickly isolated from the rest of the train, but Denis has to eliminate one aggressive rebel. This incident is considered a flagrant violation for St. Petersburg, as it violates the rights of rebels (potential quasi). It later turns out that in St. Petersburg, some intelligent quasi were caught in aggressive and irrational behavior characteristic of rebels. Some of these quazi even bit or ate their victims (the quazi themselves do not eat meat or animal products). Denis Simonov, his old friend Mikhail, and his son Alexander were to find out who was responsible for the death of an entire train car of young sailors and what caused such a strange and dangerous reaction in the quazi.